‘Why do you seek the living with the dead?
Why do you mourn the incorruptible as though he were in corruption?’
(Paschal matins)

The holy Pascha has come at last and God is again ordering the light to be and to shine in darkness. That is why the joyful exclamation: ‘Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!’ sounds so mightily. The tidings of resurrection are tidings of light for the world. Darkness is overcome, even if it is still mighty in the world up to this day. ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it’, as we read in the Gospel of St John. (1:5)

In joy or in pain, in public or alone, the presence of Christ gives us fortitude. Faith in Him fills us with joy. His life touches the eternal in us: the unique mystery of human person. To live in this day means to experience the Love, who is our God. It means to receive a revelation that every minute of our life has a meaning only if His life and His love is animating it.

His Kingdom comes in all its might, light and victory every time we let it out the walls in which we have kept it, be it the walls of our churches or the tombs our bodies, thoughts and feelings, in which we have hemmed it, thinking it belongs only to us. The secret place of heart where Jesus lives knows no limits. It encloses the whole world in the width and depth of the love of Our Lord.

‘Do not be alarmed’, tells the angel to the three women, ‘you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here.’ (Mark 16:6). Such are the wonders that the divine service of Pascha tells us. Let our hearts hear it.

Let us congratulate you upon the feast of the bright Resurrection.

CHRIST IS RISEN !

+ Stephanos,
Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia

+Elias, Bishop of Tartu

+Alexander, Bishop of Pärnu-Saare

In Tallinn, the Feast of Resurrection 2009

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